Quotes from Classic Hollywood Actresses That You Didn't Know You Needed Today

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"Do you laugh in the right places? Then, you'll get along, in fair weather or foul. Humor is nothing less than a sense of the fitness of things. Something that's out of proportion, like an inflated ego, should strike you funny, particularly if it's your own inflated ego." - Carole Lombard

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"Egotism — usually just a case of mistaken nonentity." - Barbara Stanwyck

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On prejudice: "It is such a waste. It makes you logy and half-alive. It gives you nothing. It takes away." - Dorothy Dandridge

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When asked about what it was like to work with Tyrone Power: "I do not know Tyrone Power. I fucked him a lot, but I do not know him." - Frances Farmer

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On her bisexuality: "Going down on a woman gives me a stiff neck, going down on a man gives me lockjaw and conventional sex gives me claustrophobia." - Tallulah Bankhead

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"When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch." - Bette Davis

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"The greatest gift is not being afraid to question." - Ruby Dee

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When asked to comment on the death of Marilyn Monroe: "A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered." - Clara Bow

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On her marriages to Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, & Artie Shaw: "Maybe, in the final analysis, they saw me as something I wasn't and I tried to turn them into something they could never be. I loved them all but maybe I never understood any of them. I don't think they understood me." - Ava Gardner

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"The first time you buy a house you see how pretty the paint is and buy it. The second time you look to see if the basement has termites. It's the same with men." - Lupe Velez

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"Every man I knew went to bed with Gilda... and woke up with me." - Rita Hayworth

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On her lifelong battle with mental illness: "I ask myself: would I have been any worse off if I had stayed home or lived on a farm instead of shock treatments and medication?" - Gene Tierney

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"When I die, my epitaph should read: She Paid the Bills. That's the story of my private life." - Gloria Swanson

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"My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, afraid of what I think or of my opinions." - Eartha Kitt

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"I've never known exactly what a feminist is, except that I've been called one every time I express a sentiment that differentiates me from a doormat or a prostitute." - Mae West

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"Compromise and tolerance are magic words. It took me 40 years to become philosophical." - Hedy Lamarr

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"Bigger than life is not difficult for me. I am bigger than life." - Rita Moreno